Facts Reminded by the 1957 Land Forces Journal

The United States of America (USA) delivered more than 400 tanks and armored vehicles to the Alexandroupolis base in the Western Thrace region of Greece, 40 kilometers from Turkey's Edirne border. M1s, Bradleys and other armored vehicles have begun to be transported to advanced operating points in central and eastern Europe by rail and commercial line transport. It is not known whether a war will break out, but these transfers and accumulations have shown that tanks still maintain their importance for the armies.

Likewise, as the tension between Russia and Ukraine continued to rise in the Donbas, both countries accelerated their tank shipments in preparation for the ground operation in the Ukraine-Russia border region, where military activity continued, as if confirming the importance of tanks. Probably, there is no one left without watching the images of T-72 tanks brought from Ukraine by train as they pass to the accumulation area. Meanwhile, according to Turkish media, the Russian Army; Even a special mechanism has been placed on the tanks and armored vehicles for defense purposes against TB2s that have entered Ukraine's inventory.

On the other hand, Russia also sent up to 30 new tanks (modernized T-72B3Ms) to its base in Tajikistan earlier this month. Russia, which organized a missile defense exercise with S-300PS systems for the protection of the 201st Russian military base in Tajikistan, which is Russia's largest base outside its borders, in October this year; He declared that he is reviewing the measures to be taken in case the current turmoil in Afghanistan under the Taliban is reflected in Tajikistan. Moscow has increased its efforts to keep the regions close to the Afghanistan border under its control, against the possibility of jihadist groups infiltrating Tajikistan and other former Soviet republics in Turkestan.

Meanwhile, the product development process of the Altay, which will be the first tank produced by Turkey, was completed in 2015. The serial production phase was started and the contracts were signed. BMC won the tender for the serial production of the Altay Tank. In the same year, the Qatari army bought 49.9 percent of BMC, which was sold to Ethem Sancak for 751 million TL (200 million dollars) by the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) in 2014. In the new structure, BMC's; It is a company that has been reflected in the press that 49.9 percent belongs to Qataris, 25.1 percent belongs to Talip Öztürk and 25 percent belongs to Ethem Sancak. Recently, there have been news in the press that Ethem Sancak shares will be sold to Tosyalı Holding. In any case, this partnership structure; It has brought to mind the question of what is "domestic and national", and it has been the subject of much criticism for a while. Presumably, it was discussed in the press that domestic and national production would be achieved with 50.1%. In the meantime, let's not talk about the TÜMOSAN leg or why the company that produced the prototype did not have mass production, so that we do not get confused with these important details for now. As a result, in accordance with the contract signed with BMC on November 9, 2018, it was decided that the company would deliver the first tank, as a result of mass production, to the Turkish Armed Forces within 18 months.

On the other hand, the President of Defense Industries, who carried out this tender on behalf of the Republic of Turkey and is directly subordinate to our President, who has all kinds of powers, even mentioned the exact date on November 9, 2018, saying "The first Altay tank will be delivered to the Land Forces Command after an interval of 18 months". Later, neither the tank appeared, nor the question “where is our tank” from the Land Forces. Or we couldn't hear! However, we know that Defense Industry President İsmail Demir's statement that "the production could not be started because the engine could not be found and the 18-month process could not be operated" was the subject of intense criticism from the representatives of the opposition party in the parliament. Probably still, this 18-month process is not running…

We don't hear hopeful statements about the future of the Altay tank, albeit once in a while. For example, Mesude Kılınç, Head of SSB Engine and Power Transmission Systems Department, announced at the "Defense Technologies 2021" event organized by the Istanbul Technical University Defense Technologies Club that they aim to accept BATU, the power group project of the Altay tank, on the tank in 2024. Let's say good luck.

However, the ongoing statements of Mr. Kılınç have caused question marks to form in our minds. As a matter of fact, Kılınç said, “We would not have to deal with these technical studies if critical subsystems were not required to be developed locally. However, within the scope of the project, we continue to progress in the calendar both to develop subsystems locally and to meet the final engine and transmission performance targets. We are working hard to develop the 2024 calendar by continuing risk management activities uninterruptedly.” Kilinc's statement, referring to one of our former Ministers of National Education, which has become a common phrase today, "Oh those schools If it weren't for…” he reminded us.

Altay must have already exceeded the size of the SSB, as at the end of October this year, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu paid an official visit to South Korea and emphasized the importance of cooperation in the defense industry between the two countries. It has been expressed that this will be strengthened with various projects. As it is known, the biggest cooperation between South Korea and Turkey; KT-1 has been covered by military basic trainer aircraft. In the 2010s, 40 KT-1 aircraft were purchased from South Korea. These planes; It has been started to be used by the Turkish Air Force in Çiğli-İzmir, in order to train military pilots, instead of the T-37 aircraft, which is an American production whose time has come to be taken out of the inventory and where the author of these lines had flight training for a while. Meanwhile, like the Altay tanks, the Hürkuş aircraft produced by TAI unfortunately experienced a scheduling delay problem. Pursuant to the contract signed between the Presidency of Defense Industries and TAI in December 2014, no progress has been made yet in the delivery of 15 aircraft produced under the contract to the Turkish Air Force within one year as of June 1, 2018, that is, until June 1, 2019. .

The subject of aircraft is long, let's put our feet on the ground again and return to the ground vehicles, our tank topic. After the visit of our Minister of Foreign Affairs, a letter of intent stating that South Korean companies Doosan and S&T Dynamics will supply engines and transmissions for the Altay tank was signed between these companies and the Turkish BMC. In the first place, the news that a mutual agreement was reached on the realization of the joint production of the power pack by the parties in Turkey and the transfer of technical information from South Korea to Turkey (technology transfer or technology acquisition is unknown?) was reflected in our press. However, nowadays, it has been argued that this news is not "true" and that the declaration of intent signed with South Korea is in the form of ready-made product supply from South Korea rather than the joint mass production of the engine and transmission. According to Turkish and South Korean sources speaking to Defense News, parts produced in South Korea will be sent to Turkey instead of joint production. For some reason, it was underlined in this news that "there is concern about an intervention by the United States that could hinder the agreement".

As far as we know, South Korea's tank engine and drivetrain are dependent on German technology, namely MTU. The content of the 'technology transfer' agreement between Germany and South Korea in this area is not included in open sources. Or we don't know. Undoubtedly, obstacles in the field of defense industry can come from all sides. In essence, this and similar weapon projects were initiated by the Republic of Turkey in order to gain the independence of the operation and to avoid the obstacles of our opponents or supporters in a possible war. In fact, this situation, namely the issue of operational independence, is not something specific to Turkey. It is an international principle. It is the indispensable demand and expectation of all national armies.

Turkish defense industry; When it started to produce tanks, it was not successful for various reasons at the stage of procuring the power package from the very beginning. Thereupon, the necessity of developing domestic engine and transmission organs emerged or our state had to put forward a will in this direction. As a matter of fact, power pack design and development activities have remained in the background compared to platform design. Currently, the process of completing BMC's domestic power package has captured the entire project. Maybe, in the meantime, it may be possible to have to procure a short-term engine from Doosan. This means that the entire project setup is disrupted. How compatible a solution will be with the original contract bears question marks in itself.

South Korea, which is seen as our solution partner in the Altay tank these days; Until he developed the domestic/national power package for the K2 Black Panther tank, he initially decided to use the engine of the German company MTU and the transmission of the RENK company, and started mass production based on this production model. Meanwhile, South Koreans; In their product development studies, they encountered the problem that the domestic engine and transmission did not give the desired performance (life and durability). In order to overcome this problem, they had to loosen the contractual requirements regarding the power package. After that, moves that would pave the way for the domestic engine to be used in the K2 Black Panther tank were introduced. However, the obligation for the German RENK company to be the main supplier for the South Korean tank still continues.

Our subject is neither the Altay tank nor the situation of our other war weapons and vehicles. We did not intend to write about our defense industry. We came this far when we took the pen in our hands. What we know is that, if our defense bureaucracy fully embraces its duties and responsibilities, many projects will proceed on their own and our companies will make progress. Of course, in some projects, the first button may be buttoned incorrectly. This is the details Let's not go into our article.

Let's get to the main topic... Recently, while I was browsing old books in a bookstore, I came across a rare magazine. Desiring to take a look at the contents of this magazine, which I realized later to be the first issue of the Land Forces Magazine, which was probably kept by the first owner by binding, I started to turn its pages. I had the pleasure of bringing this carefully prepared and valuable work to my library. Note written on the inside cover: “The Land Forces Command, 12 July 1957 day and OPS. 1708.415.15 Tr.Nşr. It started to be published as of July 1957, replacing the class magazines with the orders no. The first thing that caught my attention was the word OPS. At that time, I understand that the highest level of American or NATO influence was reflected in military words. Later, this abbreviation of OPS (operations) became correct as HRK (Operation).

The section between pages 91 and 100 of this first magazine, which was understood to have been published in 1957 in the Turkish Military Command's Istanbul Military Printing House, was devoted to the topic of "armored units". There are two articles in this section. Our officer who wrote the first article, Tank Senior Major Enver TUNÇALP (Logistics Teacher at the School of Armored Units) told about "The History of Tank and Armored Units in the Turkish Army". Our second writer, Staff Colonel Yusuf DEMİRDAĞ, wrote an article titled "The Use of Infantry and Tanks in Defense Against the Superior Enemy". Under their own headings, both authors briefly and concisely shared their original thoughts, knowledge and experiences of that period on the use of armored units with the readers of the period.

Of course, the beauty of such books and magazines is that they are "precious and timeless treasures." Everyone knows that the fountain of life of modern societies is the developments in the field of reading and writing. This magazine, too, has not become old, exactly 64 years later, on a dusty second-hand bookstore shelf, waiting to draw my attention, and it was instrumental in writing these lines for you.

In the meantime, we took advantage of the internet out of curiosity to make a short research about who these two elders and our valuable commanders were.

Enver TUNÇALP was a productive person as an officer, poet and writer. He was born in Preveza in 1914. He was the son of the Mufti of Preveza, İsmail Hakkı Bey. During the First World War, they immigrated to Istanbul as a family. He graduated from Mudanya Şükrü Çavuş Primary School and Maltepe Military High School (1932). He completed his education at the Istanbul Military Academy (1934) and the Cavalry and Riding School (1935). He served in various ranks of the army. He retired in 1960 while he was a colonel. He was among the members and founders of many associations. Tunçalp, who is also an award-winning poet and wrote numerous poetry books, passed away in Ankara in 1992.

Yusuf DEMİRDAĞ lived an active life as an officer, politician and senator. He was born in Trabzon Maçka in 1911. He graduated from the Military Academy and the Military Academy, and served in the Turkish army for many years as a staff officer. Demirdağ, who also completed the High Command Course, retired when he was in the rank of Brigadier General. During his last years in the military, he served as the 6th Korean Brigade Assistant Commander and Ankara Armored Training Center Commander. Later, he entered politics and between 1961-1966, he was the Senator of Trabzon in the Senate of the Republic. Retired Brigadier General Demirdağ died on 7 February 1972.

On the occasion of this article, we wish God's mercy on both our commanders and our esteemed elders.

In our next article, “The content of the journal is not official; We will introduce you to the armored units section in this magazine, which says "ideas belong to the signatories". We will continue to share with you the distance our defense industry has covered or failed to cover in terms of tanks.

References:
Harrison M. (2021). Russia-led bloc cocludes drills near Afghan border to boost Tajik security, Reuters, 24 October.
Fletcher P. and Balmforth T. (2021). Russia sends new tanks to base in Tajikistan, practices missile defense, Reuters, 6 December.
Euronews. (2021). “Altay tank: Alleged change in engine and transmission production agreement with South Korea”, 11 November, Access: https://tr.euronews.com/2021/11/11/altay-tank-guney-kore-ile-motor- and-sanz-man-production-agreement-change-claim.
Access addresses for biographies: https://www.biografiya.com/biografi/21616 and https://www.biografiya.com/biografi/5189.
Alemdar A. (2021). “The engine of the Altay tank was successfully tested by BATU”, Defensetürk, May 5, Access: https://www.defenceturk.net/altay-tankinin-motoru-batu-basariyla-test-edildi.